In praise of the unfinished.

The things I love most on someone’s desk are usually the unfinished ones. A sketchbook open to a half-drawn page. A stack of scraps. The little experiment that hasn’t found a name yet.

Finished work tells you where a person arrived. Unfinished work lets you see how they move.

Room for another idea

When something is complete, it becomes easy to describe. Before that, it can still be several things. That uncertainty can be frustrating, but it is also generous. It lets another idea in.

I’ve been trying to leave a little more work visible while it is still becoming. Not everything needs to be shown, but not everything needs to be hidden until it is perfect either.

An unfinished thing is not a failed finished thing. It is a place where something can still happen.

An invitation, not a performance

Sharing a work in progress changes the question. Instead of asking, “Do you like it?” you can ask, “What do you see here?”

Sometimes someone notices a possibility you had walked straight past. Sometimes they simply help you keep going.

That is enough. The invitation is the interesting part.